Movies— Kogonada Takes Us Into the World of After Yang - Production Designer Alexandra Schaller Talks

 

Introduction

You may have seen the film,

After Yang, the latest release from acclaimed director Kogonada. The film is set in a future following an unspecified calamity, and follows a young family who struggles through the loss of their android.

Production designer Alexandra Schaller was tasked with creating a different, greener vision of the future for the film. In this exclusive interview, she discusses her inspirations, her process, and how she translated Kogonada's vision into a tangible world onscreen.

Introduction to After Yang and Its Director Kogonada

Kogonada is the director of After Yang, a science fiction film set in the future. The film is set some time after an unspecified calamity and follows a young family who struggles through the loss of their android, who serves as both a caregiver and a sibling for an adopted daughter.

What makes Kogonada unique as a director is his focus on esthetics and design in space. He's an esthete, and he cares deeply about how things look on screen. Part of what makes After Yang so special is that it was designed and created with his attention to detail.

Another important member of the team was Alexandra Schaller, who served as production designer. Alexandra Schaller came onto the project very early on, during the pre-production phase. She gave Kogonada what he needed to make his vision a reality and helped to create the warm and cozy world of After Yang.

The Concept and Design Process for After Yang

Production designer Alexandra Schaller had a specific vision for the future in mind when she began working on After Yang. "The concept was to come up with a more grounded future - one that wasn't as dark and dismal as some other films in this genre," she explained. "I wanted it to be a future that we could still be optimistic about."

To create this vision, Schaller and her team took great care in the thoughtfulness of their production design. One of the most important facets was making sure the film had a warm and cozy feeling. "I think it's really important to show that there is still hope," said Schaller. "Even in the most dire of situations, we can find moments of warmth and comfort."

Exploring Transracial Adoption in After Yang

Production designer Alexandra Schaller discusses her background in theater design and how it influenced her work on the film. "I come from a theater design background, so for me it was really important that the audience feel like they're in this warm, cozy environment. We didn't want it to be too futurist or too abstract. We wanted it to be grounded in a human story."

After Yang touches on transracial adoption and humanity. The film takes place in a postapocalyptic future with widespread adoption of Chinese children. The story follows a young family who struggles through the loss of their android, who serves as both a caregiver and a sibling for an adopted daughter.

Building a Cozy & Constructive Vision of the Future

Schaller's team worked hard to achieve a cozy, constructive vision of the future. To build their world, they leaned on natural materials, like deadwood and scrap materials, for their sets. “We asked ourselves what people would be building and making if the world had gone through this calamity,” Schaller says. “Instead of just going out and buying shiny new furniture for our sets, we looked at reclaimed materials and pieces that someone had already built. We wanted to see an evolution from what was there before — something that was functional and that people were actually using.”

The idea of crafting something warm and comforting was top of mind when putting together sets like a luxurious home in a forest clearing or the tiny apartment where protagonist Anna Yang lives with her adoptive family: “They weren’t clean or sterile-looking spaces — they looked lived-in and organic, with plenty of texture and materiality.”

Working With Advanced Technology in the Movie

The film is set in some point in the future and follows a young family struggling with the loss of an android family member. Of course, such advanced technology was necessary to tell this story but, as Schaller explains, it was important that it didn’t overpower the human elements of the film. She worked hard to make sure that the tech felt like an organic part of the world and the characters’ lives, instead of just a clunky device for them to interact with.

“We wanted to have flexibility with how we presented technology, so it never felt like something we were forcing upon people or something that seemed out of our world right now,” she says. To accomplish this, Schaller leaned on her experience in mixed media design—drawing on elements from both past and present designs to create something that felt real without being too specific or dated. The end result was tech that was used organically in the movie without taking away from its human core.

Final Thoughts on Creating After Yang

When all was said and done, Schaller was proud of the vision of the future that she and Kogonada created. “I’m really proud of how Kogonada and I have built this world together,” she says. “We’re actively discussing a lot about sustainability and the environment, so I think we both wanted to create a future that feels organic, and touches on these topics in a meaningful way.”

What makes After Yang stand out is its thoughtfulness in its production design. It doesn’t just rely on CGI spectacle to create its world—it also has a human touch that grounds it in reality. As Schaller says, they wanted to build a world that people could relate to, even if it might be set in the distant future. They may not have known exactly where they were going or what they were doing at the start of production, but the two filmmakers managed to piece together an incredibly realistic science fiction vision.

Conclusion

Production designer Alexandra Schaller had the unenviable task of creating the warm and cozy future of After Yang. In an interview, Schaller discussed her process, her inspirations, and how she made the film's vision of the future a reality.

Schaller's design for the future is heavily influenced by the idea of transracial adoption. She wanted to create a world in which people of all races could come together and form families, something that is sorely lacking in our current society. Her designs are based in reality, and she used materials that could be found today to create the film's unique vision of the future.

After Yang is a beautiful, thought-provoking film that offers a different, more hopeful vision of the future.